Your Neighborhood Full Service Repair Facility
50% OFF TOWING WITH ALL MAJOR REPAIRS
Shuttle Service Available
Open All Day on Saturdays!
No Credit Check Payment Plans!
July 20, 2016
Most vehicles have automatic transmissions, yet a lot of Grand Rapids drivers only have a fuzzy understanding about what a transmission does. Think back to the last time you rode a bike in Grand Rapids. You started out in a lower gear and shifted to higher gears as you went faster. Down shift for hills, stuff like that. Think of your legs as the engine – there's an ideal speed you can pedal and you change gears to leverage the work you're doing.
Lower gears for power on hills or for starting out. Higher gears for more speed. That's what the automatic transmission does – it automatically starts in lower gears and shifts up to higher gears to go faster on Michigan roads. And it automatically shifts back down to climb Grand Rapids hills, pass or start up again.
Vehicle automatic transmissions have certainly gotten more sophisticated in recent years. They have more speeds than before: the base is four speeds, five is very common.
At Tuffy Grand Rapids, we routinely service transmissions with six speeds and several have seven or even eight speeds. As you can imagine, this means more parts. Any they all have to fit into roughly the same space.
Transmissions are computer controlled these days, with some high end transmissions having two or three computers. Transmissions are engineered to last. But they are also engineered to tighter tolerances. If a portion of the transmission is starved for lubrication, it can lead to failure.
Not enough fluid can starve the transmission, or dirty transmission fluid can clog small passages in the transmission. Then the lubricant is blocked and can't get to all the parts to protect them, so they wear out prematurely. The technicians at Tuffy Grand Rapids see far too many transmissions that needlessly failed due to neglect.
And, as you can imagine, repairing one of these new transmissions at any Grand Rapids service center can be quite costly. That's why owner’s manuals have a schedule for how often you should change the fluid and what type of fluid to use.
It's really important for Grand Rapids area drivers to carefully follow the manufacturer's transmission service schedule.
At Tuffy Grand Rapids in Grand Rapids, we hope you never become shiftless in Grand Rapids because you didn't take care of your transmission.
Tuffy Grand Rapids
610 28th St. SE
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49548
616.452.4425
August 31, 2025
So you almost got through the winter until, one day, your muffler started sounding like a dragster, loud and obnoxious. It's not surprising. All that road salt and brine can cause rust to punch holes in a muffler, and that should raise a big, red warning flag about the safety of your vehicle. O... More
August 24, 2025
Let's face it. Vehicles are complicated machines, each having thousands of parts. And since they're subjected to heat, cold, vibrations, bumps and much more, these parts wear out and need to be replaced. When your service advisor says you need a new part, you may have many options. Let's say ... More
August 17, 2025
If you own a newer vehicle, your vehicles manufacturer may require that it use synthetic oil instead of conventional oil. Synthetic oils are more stable, dont break down as easily, and provide better engine protection than conventional oil. All those things can prolong the life of your engine an... More
